Adaptation Strategies for Training Lands and Ranges at Fort Leonard Wood, MO

In the United States and its territories, the Department of Army manages approximately 11 million acres of land for military use. The repeated and consumptive use of these lands for military training and testing activities, which is unique to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), creates a significant land management challenge. Superimposed upon these types of disturbance-related impacts are climate change scenarios that predict warming and greater climatic variability for the foreseeable future, including more frequent and severe droughts and intense storm events. This work identified and described several key planning and management activities that can be implemented in the face of a changing climate to ensure that training and testing ranges at Fort Leonard Wood, MO will continue to provide sustainable, realistic, and cost effective training opportunities for the warfighter well into the future.